Behold, the Lord

It came to pass, not long after the year 2014, that God suddenly appeared in a sparsely populated part of North Korea. He wasn't there one moment, and in the blink of an eye in the next moment, there He was. At exactly noon, He appeared as an ordinary man of six foot, four under a brilliant sun in a cloudless sky – not moving, not saying anything, His white robe flowing with whatever mild breeze happened to stir. He looked exactly as Michelangelo depicted Him on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapter in the Creation of Adam.

It didn't take long for a local resident to alert the military authorities, which dispatched a truckload of soldiers to confront the Lord. They thought He was just some imperialist yankee stooge in a robe and sandals who was where he didn't belong. So they piled out of their trucks to arrest Him, but couldn't get closer than ten feet. Some who were stronger managed to push to within nine feet of Him, but were exhausted by the effort. They yelled and screamed at Him, but He just aloofly beheld them. One of the soldiers, by order of his superior of course, fired a shot intended to strike a foot of so from His feet.

The bullet couldn't penetrate whatever it was that had held the soldiers back.

Of course escalations followed, each more severe than the last. With the last being the most interesting – Kim Jong-Un ordered a tactical nuclear artillery shell to be fired at Him from a howitzer. This was to explode about 100 feet over His head. And it did explode, as best it could. The fireball managed to expand to a diameter of about 20 feet and then it disappeared. Totally, without a trace. And He, just as before, just stood there with His robe billowing in the breeze, remaining silent.

At the same moment the fireball disappeared, the flesh from Kim's body disappeared. Only his bones, locked in place and supporting his military uniform, remained with his full head of ridiculously cropped hair still on his head. Kim just stood there like a mannequin fixed to the spot he had lived on just a moment before. His generals ran screaming from the spot.

Then He spoke: “Do not stop anyone from crossing your border to see me.” Then He added one more command as He, for just a moment, appeared as Kim would have appeared, complete with military uniform, had he still been alive: “That's an order.” And then He assumed His prior appearance.

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The first group of pilgrims came from among the various elites of world society. But He made immediately clear, “I will answer questions but you will not prevent anyone who wants to see Me, no matter how humble, from doing so.”

“I have a question, Lord,” asked the Pope. “Where's Jesus?”

In answer, the Lord laughed and then said, “Next question.”

The Chief Rabbi of Israel asked, “When will the first messiah appear?” And the Lord laughed even more heartily than before. But this time He had a follow-up: “Here I stand before you, the Lord of all Creation, and you ask Me about the Messiah?”

“How do we know you're the Lord of all Creation?” asked an aide, as ordered by some anonymous superior. Then He pointed to the sun, which promptly disappeared; and pointing again a few minutes later, it reappeared. Then He said, “Behold,” and everybody in this gathering found themselves totally naked. But, again, only for a few minutes.

Then someone asked, “Why are You here?”

“To answer questions and to talk to you. Haven't you always been complaining about my absence in the world, about my refusal to talk? Well, here I am. Oh, and please, it won't be necessary for anyone to make a pilgrimage to this spot.”

Later, that evening, He reconfigured all of the stars in the heavens so as to make the night sky look totally alien even to a child. After an hour, He reset the stars to their former locations.

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And this came to pass the very next day: For millennia, God was nowhere to be found; for one day, He was to be found in North Korea; thereafter, He came to be found everywhere. Slowly, at first – only a couple of dozen simultaneous appearances were reported in a variety of spots around the world. The most striking were three: He suddenly appeared out of thin air in the Pentagon War Room, walked up to the President, put His arm around his shoulder, and said, “I hope you don't mind me sitting in on your meeting.” Similar appearances occurred in China and Russia; it was reported that His spoken Russian and Mandarin were as excellent as His English.

The half-time show at this year's Super Bowl was (shall we say?) divine. The music was blaring, dozens of half-naked dancers were contorting as the lead female singer was writhing suggestively. And then He appeared among them. And the music stopped, and the dancing stopped – cold. He didn't say a word, but a few of the dancers beat a hasty retreat to put on more clothes. And one of the star players threw his helmet to the ground and walked off the field, never to play again. Out of remorse for a devastating hit he made on an opponent in the second quarter. As it turned out, that opponent was able to walk again, making a full recovery, thanks to his crippler always being at his side giving encouragement and expressing his sorrow.

Within a few months, tens of millions of these “God copies” (clones if you will, but only if you will) were walking the earth. But I think I was the first (and maybe the only) to be blessed with a personal, one-on-one visit. I was alone, stuck in an elevator between floors. I had just successfully called for help and was told the repairman should be there in an hour. Then the elevator's phone went dead. And so did my cell. Then He appeared.

“You've waited all your life to talk to Me. Go ahead.”

“I don't believe you are God. Suppose you are, though, and I choose not to follow you. What then? What becomes of me when I die? Where do I go? What do I do?”

“There are many places to go, many things to do.”

“So what will happen to me won't have anything to do with the so-called unspoken commandment: Love Me or I'll kill you? That is, or I'll condemn you to an eternity of suffering in Hell?”

“That kind of love is born from insecurity, as manifested by too many men toward too many women. And I assure you, I am not insecure. I come from a place of unconditional love. Whatever happens to you, will be as your karma dictates. And will be affected by the power of your own will.”

Then He assumed the appearance of Shakyamuni Buddha or, rather, of what we've commonly assumed that buddha would look like.

“Are you a buddha?”

“No, but there are people who need to see a buddha.”

“Are you God?”

“No, but there are people who need to see God.”

“You called Yourself the Lord of all Creation.”

“I lied.”

“How did you make the sun disappear and the stars relocate?”

“I did no such things, but I could have. Since the disruptions to other civilizations not-of-this-earth would have been too great, I merely made all of you think I affected the sun and the stars.”

“Are there others like you?”

“More than you can imagine. As for others who could become like me, even more than that. You, for instance.”

“Why did you appear as the God of Abraham? Wouldn't that have shaken the faith of Buddhists?”

“Well, there are Buddhists and there are Buddhists. Those beyond a certain level of development wouldn't believe for one instant that this God could really exist. As for the other Buddhists – those still new to the Way – that group would be cared for by the first group, guiding them to the correct understanding.”

“How long will you stay in the world?”

“In an hour, your rescuers will find you alive and alone in this elevator. And I will no longer appear anywhere else in this world.”

“Is there anything You want me to do?”

He didn't say a word but changed His appearance one last time, so He looked exactly like Me. I took one long, last, calming gaze into His eyes – My own eyes.

Then He was gone.

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Steven Searle, just another member of the

Virtual Samgha of the Lotus and

former candidate for President of the

United States of America (in 2008 & 2012)

contact me at bpa_cinc@yahoo.com